1778-1783

"You might have tracked the army
... by the blood of their feet."
- George Washington at Valley Forge

By the Spring of 1779, hopes were high that the war would end soon! In
London, British ministers talked of reconciliation. In Paris, Benjamin
Franklin netted the crucial alliance with the
French. In America, the Continental troops were becoming a real
fighting force despite threats to the army
from exposure, starvation and disease.

The common soldier miraculously persevered, even though Turncoats
(Loyalist Americans) who had joined the British outnumbered the entire
Continental Army! The war dragged on. The Southern
Campaign slowly forced British forces from the Carolinas into
Virginia. Finally in 1781 as the Redcoats waited for reinforcements at
Yorktown, Washington's army converged
with the French Navy to surround the coastal city, forcing the British
to surrender. The war was basically over, but it would be two more years
before peace was negotiated.